ot make Miss Sally
a present of the book until he and she had first become well acquainted.
Jarby's said so. He scrambled hurriedly to his feet.

"Miss Briggs," he said earnestly, "You ain't near guessing the reason
why I don't want to sell you a copy of the world-famous volume. You
ain't nowhere near it at all. If I was to tell you what the reason was
I guess you'd be surprised. But I ain't going to tell you. It ain't
because you can't pay for it, for if it was a library of one thousand
volumes at ten dollars a volume, ten dollars down and ten dollars a
month, I'd be glad to take your order. And it ain't because I ain't
going to sell any more copies here, because I am, and I'm going to sell
all I can, right here at this picnic, just to show you what I can do
when I try. But I ain't going to sell you one. I've got a good reason."

Miss Sally was not fully pacified by this, for now she was sure she had
guessed the reason Eliph' Hewlitt did not want to sell her a copy. She
imagined now that some book agent had told him of her father's aversion
to books--when they had to be paid for--and that Eliph' Hewlitt was
willing to forego a sale rather than lead her into new trouble with her
father. Possibly he had met the Walter Scott man. She turned away.

"I guess I'll go and help Mrs. Smith lay out the lunch," she said, as
the easiest way to be rid of the annoyance.

"I guess I'll go, too," said Eliph' Hewlitt promptly and cheerfully.
"I'm a good hand at that. It tells all about it in Jarby's Encyclopedia.
Look under 'P':'Picnic Lunches. Picnic, How to Organize and Conduct.
Picnic, Origin of,' et cetery, et cetery. A book that contains all the
knowledge in the world condensed into one volume, with lives of all the
world's great men, from Adam to Roosevelt, and the dying words of them
that is dead."

Miss Sally turned on him sharply.

"Goodness sakes!" she exclaimed, "I wish you would either sell me a copy
of that book or keep still about it. Ain't I going to have no peace at
all?"

"I didn't mention it, did I?" asked Eliph' Hewlitt innocently, and he
did not know that he had. "I was speaking of this happy gathering. Ain't
it pretty to see all kinds of folks gathered together this way to make
each other happier? It's like a living Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge
and Compendium of Literature, Science and Art, a little of everything
in one volume, and all of it good. All the good things from parson to
pickles. I suppose y